Posts by jim.warwick

Deepfakes being used in 'sextortion' scams, FBI warns

Detection is futile...

The idea that we can rely on AI systems to detect deepfakes seems to ignore the fact that the very reason GANs work so well is because they are trained against an "adversarial" network until it can't spot the difference. All we'll achieve is ever increasingly perfect deep fakes that is practically impossible to detect.

It also seems ironic that the go-to application of any new on-line technology - porn - is probably training our future overlords. At least they'll know how to have a good time.

Hmmm...

Jim

Man wins court case against employer that fired him for not liking boozy, forced 'fun' culture

Re: "Fun & pro, that's our motto!"

Ha - thankyou - you just reminded me of the "how many otters can you fit on a plane" segment from the most excellent "Cabin Pressure" Radio 4 sitcom - sadly they don't make 'em like that any more. Clip attached.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmlXLU-1E6Y

That's made my morning :-)

Jim

Scientists pull hydrogen from thin air in promising clean energy move

Re: Storage ? Transport ?

In terms of storage, you can go for liquid hydrogen, but also converting to Ammonia is a good option for several reasons:

- it's got a higher energy density per litre than liquid hydrogen

- there are already well established supply chains (because of the fertiliser industry)

- it burns (or "fuel cells") to give water and Nitrogen; no problems there

- it's easier to handle

...there are problems - you "lose" energy in the conversion (but at that point, who cares) and it's smelly and poisonous, so maybe not for home use (!), but for heavier industrial uses (e.g. shipping) it's a better choice than battery or liquid H2.

Jim

Autonomy founder Lynch scores extradition decision delay as Home Sec ponders sending him to US

It's a game of chicken...

It's ridiculous that we haven't got a verdict in the civil case yet and it feels like Priti Patel is now engaged in a game of chicken with the civil trial judge Mr Justice Hildyard.

Who's going to blink first? Priti with the extradition ruling (which should be a rubber stamp by the rules), or Hildyard with the civil case outcome?

I guess Priti's gamble is that Lynch is found (to some extent) guilty in the civil trial, and then the extradition is politically easy for her.

...not so easy if he's found not guilty though - particularly since it's a balance of probability test.

Sadly, this is now all to do with politics and UK/US relations rather than anything to do with justice.

Excel Hell: It's not just blame for pandemic pandemonium being spread between the sheets

Was this Excel or just Excel file format...?

What I read here is that the data clean up process used an out of date Excel *file format*.

This to me sounds like it could be a data clean-up tool that is using an old excel file format as it's output to be imported into the national database thingamyjig (whatever that is).

Working off a deprecated Excel file spec as your data interchange mechanism is not much better, but it's at least not using some hacked-together Excel macros...?

Would like to know the details...

'We've done it, we've wasted further time!' Judge raps HP over Mike Lynch court scrutiny

Re: The question is...

Actually a very relevant question.

Given BoJo's (and indeed the country's) forthcoming need to subjugate itself to the US after we've crashed out of the EU, the extradition request from the US for Lynch may well be a sweetener here that BoJo will be working to influence (albeit he shouldn't be able to).

I'm sure Lynch will not want to count on BoJo backing him in his corner.

Nice to see what "taking back control" looks like anyhow.